P

pelota games
7; Pelota (in Basque and Catalan, pilota; in French pelote, from Latin pila) is a name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat (pala), or a basket propulsor, against a wall (frontón in Spanish, frontoi in Basque, frontó in Catalan) or, more traditionally, with two teams face to face separated by a line on the ground or a net.

perpetual-motion machine
6; Perpetual motion refers to a condition in which an object continues to move indefinitely without being driven by an external source of energy. Wikipedia entry

Princess Casamassima, The
6; an Italian Romance; The Princess Casamassima is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1885-1886 and then as a book in 1886. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. Wikipedia entry

Pugnax
5; (Latin: pugnax = fond of fighting) sentient canine aboard The Inconvenience; 17; Also, there's a bird called the Ruff (Philomachus pugnax) which is a medium-sized wader.